Pages

Search This Blog

Thursday, November 29, 2012

My Gaming Life: Morality Schmorality

So, I've recently been playing the point and click adventure game Beneath A Steel Sky. The game is really endearing itself to me, though that is pretty easy since:

1) Its a point and click adventure, a genre which I've come to love since I found Quadsux's walkthrough of Sam and Max Season 2 on Youtube years ago.

2) I got it for free for signing up on Gog.com

3) Its got a funny and memorable cast

4) It has a mystery that, while I'm pretty sure of the ending, I really want to see where all the twists and turns take me

5) Its comedy is clever and endearing and all other adjectives to describe something as good

Seriously, go check it out.

Anyway, as I led Robert Foster through the world of Union City, I came across the puzzle which I had to get some buttons unstuck and open a locked fuse box in a power plant so I could get an elevator to work. I found a convenient tube of WD40 and a key in a storage section of the Union City Pipe Factory, So I got my robot companion Joey to break the alarm system with his new welder bot shell. I got the tools I needed but I kept having them get taken away by the clipboard obsessed worker next to the entrance. After finally crumbling and consulting a walkthrough, I discovered that there was some plastic explosive I could pick up that the mustachioed clipboard enthusiast wouldn't notice. All I had to do now is go back to the power plant, loosen some screws on the buttons with my wrench (something I also discovered through the walkthrough) make the old man at the power plant leave and open the fusebox by blowing the lock up so I could flip a switch to get the elevator working.

During all this, as I tried in vain to get the key and WD40 back, my mind went though all the ways I could jut knock this guy out and steal the stuff back. I could have hit him over the head with my wrench, maybe beat him up with the crowbar I had or even smash his face into his console. My mind went further on thinking since he thought Robert was with Union City Security, I could find the now deceased Sergeant Reich's gun and threaten him with it. (This was before I realized that the camera that cooked Reich to death probably disintegrated the gun)

And then, a funny little thought came to me: Why the hell am I thinking like this?

I mean, I don't even hate the guy who took the stuff, but I was thinking of so many ways to brutalize this poor guy who was only doing his job. But I didn't really care. He was in my way of solving a problem I had, and I was going to get that stuff back no matter what. Hell, when I finally get to the lower level I met a guy who called himself Mr. Cool, a guy who I really wanted to order Joey to fix his face with a bit of spot welding. I'm not usually this violent a thinker, but I was willing to go medieval on asses to get the job done in the game. Screw being the good guy, I just wanted to win.

And I'm never like that. If I ever play inFAMOUS, for example, I probably will go for the all goodie good route. But for some reason, my morality just went out the flippin' window.

Has that ever happened to you while playing a game? Please, tell me in the comments.